A report by the Ministerial Advisory Group reviewing English and maths learning, has recommended annual checkpoint tests for students.
It recommends children in Years 4-6 learn handwriting, including cursive handwriting, and study the "conventions of text structure and style".
Children would also be encouraged to write by hand as much as possible in their first three years at school.
The Write Lesson managing director Belinda Blick-Duggan says more schools have turned their back on teaching handwriting than ever.
"Something like handwriting can be so settling and consistent - and actually a really good routine for a lot of those children."
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Kerry Wood and Morning's podcast from
News Talks. He'd be.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
A report by the Ministerial Advisory Group reviewing English and
Maths Learning has recommended annual checkpoint tests for students. It
recommends children in years four to six learned handwriting, including
cursive handwriting, and study the conventions of text, structure and style.
Children would also be encouraged to write by hand as
much as possible in their first three years at school.
(00:34):
In a digital age, who would have to wonder about
the benefits of handwriting, especially cursive. The Right Lesson is
a New Zealand company supporting teachers worldwide with their teaching
of English handwriting. Managing director Belinda Blickduggan joins me, now,
very good morning to.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
You, good morning, nice to speak to you.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
To you too. Look, I think it was last year
we had the most glorious young woman ringing who was
a handwriting instructor going around schools teaching handwriting, and I
just like it was me.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
I spoke to you last year.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yes, yes, good, there you go. I didn't realize you
still going. That's fantastic. So how many have you got?
How many? How many people have you got going around.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Well, actually, I do it myself, but I've worked out
a way of, you know, trying to do it in
a really efficient way. So I've created a whole lot
of videos and that's how I upskill the teachers at
the same time.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
So is it a voluntary thing the teachers reach out
to you and say, look, I think learning handwriting would
really help my class.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yes, pretty much. And so obviously a lot of schools
have taken it on this year. More so is the
becoming more familiar with excuse my boys, structured literacy and
all the research around literacy development. So I had a
lot more interest this year. But it is it's nothing.
(02:06):
There's still a huge, huge number of schools that not
always they don't always see the benefits and the teaching
pans writing.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
It just seems really random and arbitrary, doesn't it. So
one child might go to a school where teachers see
the merit in handwriting, their cousin might go to another
school where they don't.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Absolutely right and so and you know, if you're thinking
about the children who are the most disadvantage, you know,
the children, the transient children who are moving from one
school to the next. Imagine what it's like for them
it gets such a disjointed approach to everything that they learn. Really,
so it's something like handwriting can be. I think it
(02:53):
can be so settling and consistent and actually a really
good routine for a lot of those children as well
a way of self suit absolutely, and it's one one
of those things that the children. It's quite a tangible
thing that they can say, well, this is what it
looked like at the beginning, and now look at where
(03:13):
I am. You know, it's something they can really really see.
So it's developing confidence all those sorts of things. It's
so important.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
And that's cursive handwriting over printing a combination.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Really Traditionally in New Zealand, we'vel's gone from printing and
then they learn the flicks and then they go into
the cursive and the research kind of sits. There's no
hard and fast research, so one better than the other. However,
whatever it is, it needs to be consistent. You can't
just chop and change around from different things and so on.
(03:50):
It just needs to be all consistent with what they're
doing and the consistency of teaching. And if you think
about cursive when you're actually learning it, there are patterns
in ways that you have to write the letters. So
a lot of our children with printing over the years,
they've just sort of learned to write them by osmosis
(04:11):
and in any direction, whereas with cursive it kind of
it reduces the formation errors because they have to start
and certain point to join to the next letter and
so on.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yes, that's right. Interesting, So that sort of helps with
the neural pathways overall, doesn't it?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Absolutely? And all the research shows and you were saying
that before, how it activates the brain and it's good
for memory retention. So I mean, I'm an advocate obviously
for handwriting. I think there's a time and place absolutely
for typing, and I think that needs to be part
of what we do as well, because our kids need
(04:48):
to know when it's best to learn, when it's best
to use their hand to write, and when it's best
to type. And so if they're learning something new in
class writing, it is so much better way to go.
And if you're not competent in doing that, then you
get pushback. But if they you know, so we're really excited,
(05:10):
I mean, the kids. All the feedback we get from
what we've been doing is that you know the confidence
and they yeah, they're just getting used to it again.
And I think teachers are becoming more aware that it
serves a purpose in a different way.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
So when the teachers get you in, they get you
in to teach the cursive writing or do they get
you in to teach the proper way to do any
sort of writing? Because how else how are the kids
learning at the moment.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
So in terms of what we do with our professional development,
which I think is actually quite an efficient way if
you're for the last twenty years, we've had so many
teachers who haven't really been teaching handwriting, and well.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
They they were never taught about themselves, were they?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
That's real playing. Well, well, that's that's why I thought,
you know, having a background and professional development of okay,
what's the quickest and easiest way to upskill our teachers
and also teach our children. So that's why I created
a whole lot of videos. So if you can imagine,
there are videos that show lesser formation. I do the teaching,
(06:18):
and it goes up on the screen and the teachers
can watch it, and the children watch it, and they
pause it, and then the teachers can model and use
my instruction to help them, so it serves a dull purpose.
So it's all there ready to go, though it's so easy.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, the videos are just the same as the writing
on the blackboard that we all had to copy in
our small books. But what are the nature's teaching at
the moment is that just anything goes so long as
it's something that's legible.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
They much, I think that's it, And a lot of
them haven't really realized, you know, they look at what
the output is, but they don't look at the input
and how the children are actually getting there. And a
lot of you know, I've been working with GA nine
and ten students and a lot of them have no
(07:05):
confidence in the way that they actually they're writing looks
on paper. Yeah, so, and you know that just affects
the whole mentality around the whole writing concept, you know,
so and a lot of them. But the mask you know,
the boys often boys will want to be on the
device because it looks the same, doesn't it. You know,
(07:27):
like if you type something, it looks the same as
the person next to you. You can't see that it
looks that you can't actually physically write with your hand.
A lot of the problems are caused because they haven't
been taught, rather than anything that it's actually wrong with them.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
So obviously you're fully supportive of the Advisory Group's recommendation.
But where are we going to get the teachers from.
I mean you, I think I said at the time,
you're a rare and beautiful unicorn going around teaching because
you know, given that we have had about twenty years
of teachers who haven't learned it. Apart from Megan Markle,
that's the only when I can think of it's had
(08:07):
an interest in calligraphy in the last twenty years.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Well, I think, I mean, ideally for me, it would
be something like the ministry supports an initiative like I've got,
and we roll it out, you know, we roll it
out across and we're don't have to spend huge taxpayer
money on it. You know, it's ready to go. The
Ministry rolls it out, we have consistency, we can ut
(08:32):
skill teachers at the same time, and it doesn't require
a huge investment of time because a lot of it
is self driven. But we've got to get the buy
in from the teachers as well, and hopefully that's working.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
I mean, surely it's just common sense. You can see
it for yourself. You only have to trial it for
a couple of weeks to see that. If you get
children writing, they remember it's all rare.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah, And that's the feedback we get all the time,
you know. And the cursor that we we add Kate
for is not excuse me, really spied or loose kind
of handwriting, and we want you know, it's it's like
a mixed script. So it's a combination of printing and cursive.
(09:21):
Joy in three. I think I'm looking at the original
one that we all were taught. Yeah, I was taught
in the eighties.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I think that's what I've got, the quick brown fox
jumping over the lazy dog as a mixture of cursive
and you know the print Ye what about those loops?
Do say about my peers? The very big.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Anyway?
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Thank you so much, Belinda. Always good to talk Belinda
Blick Dagan, who is the managing director of the Write
Lessons about like handwriting obs write lesson dot co dot nzet.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
For more from Kerry Wooden Mornings, listen live to news
talks it'd be from nine am weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Kerry Wood and Morning's podcast from
News Talks. He'd be.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
A report by the Ministerial Advisory Group reviewing English and
Maths Learning has recommended annual checkpoint tests for students. It
recommends children in years four to six learned handwriting, including
cursive handwriting, and study the conventions of text, structure and style.
Children would also be encouraged to write by hand as
much as possible in their first three years at school.
(00:34):
In a digital age, who would have to wonder about
the benefits of handwriting, especially cursive. The Right Lesson is
a New Zealand company supporting teachers worldwide with their teaching
of English handwriting. Managing director Belinda Blickduggan joins me, now,
very good morning to.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
You, good morning, nice to speak to you.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
To you too. Look, I think it was last year
we had the most glorious young woman ringing who was
a handwriting instructor going around schools teaching handwriting, and I
just like it was me.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
I spoke to you last year.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yes, yes, good, there you go. I didn't realize you
still going. That's fantastic. So how many have you got?
How many? How many people have you got going around.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Well, actually, I do it myself, but I've worked out
a way of, you know, trying to do it in
a really efficient way. So I've created a whole lot
of videos and that's how I upskill the teachers at
the same time.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
So is it a voluntary thing the teachers reach out
to you and say, look, I think learning handwriting would
really help my class.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yes, pretty much. And so obviously a lot of schools
have taken it on this year. More so is the
becoming more familiar with excuse my boys, structured literacy and
all the research around literacy development. So I had a
lot more interest this year. But it is it's nothing.
(02:06):
There's still a huge, huge number of schools that not
always they don't always see the benefits and the teaching
pans writing.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
It just seems really random and arbitrary, doesn't it. So
one child might go to a school where teachers see
the merit in handwriting, their cousin might go to another
school where they don't.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Absolutely right and so and you know, if you're thinking
about the children who are the most disadvantage, you know,
the children, the transient children who are moving from one
school to the next. Imagine what it's like for them
it gets such a disjointed approach to everything that they learn. Really,
so it's something like handwriting can be. I think it
(02:53):
can be so settling and consistent and actually a really
good routine for a lot of those children as well
a way of self suit absolutely, and it's one one
of those things that the children. It's quite a tangible
thing that they can say, well, this is what it
looked like at the beginning, and now look at where
(03:13):
I am. You know, it's something they can really really see.
So it's developing confidence all those sorts of things. It's
so important.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
And that's cursive handwriting over printing a combination.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Really Traditionally in New Zealand, we'vel's gone from printing and
then they learn the flicks and then they go into
the cursive and the research kind of sits. There's no
hard and fast research, so one better than the other. However,
whatever it is, it needs to be consistent. You can't
just chop and change around from different things and so on.
(03:50):
It just needs to be all consistent with what they're
doing and the consistency of teaching. And if you think
about cursive when you're actually learning it, there are patterns
in ways that you have to write the letters. So
a lot of our children with printing over the years,
they've just sort of learned to write them by osmosis
(04:11):
and in any direction, whereas with cursive it kind of
it reduces the formation errors because they have to start
and certain point to join to the next letter and
so on.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yes, that's right. Interesting, So that sort of helps with
the neural pathways overall, doesn't it?
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Absolutely? And all the research shows and you were saying
that before, how it activates the brain and it's good
for memory retention. So I mean, I'm an advocate obviously
for handwriting. I think there's a time and place absolutely
for typing, and I think that needs to be part
of what we do as well, because our kids need
(04:48):
to know when it's best to learn, when it's best
to use their hand to write, and when it's best
to type. And so if they're learning something new in
class writing, it is so much better way to go.
And if you're not competent in doing that, then you
get pushback. But if they you know, so we're really excited,
(05:10):
I mean, the kids. All the feedback we get from
what we've been doing is that you know the confidence
and they yeah, they're just getting used to it again.
And I think teachers are becoming more aware that it
serves a purpose in a different way.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
So when the teachers get you in, they get you
in to teach the cursive writing or do they get
you in to teach the proper way to do any
sort of writing? Because how else how are the kids
learning at the moment.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
So in terms of what we do with our professional development,
which I think is actually quite an efficient way if
you're for the last twenty years, we've had so many
teachers who haven't really been teaching handwriting, and well.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
They they were never taught about themselves, were they?
Speaker 3 (05:55):
That's real playing. Well, well, that's that's why I thought,
you know, having a background and professional development of okay,
what's the quickest and easiest way to upskill our teachers
and also teach our children. So that's why I created
a whole lot of videos. So if you can imagine,
there are videos that show lesser formation. I do the teaching,
(06:18):
and it goes up on the screen and the teachers
can watch it, and the children watch it, and they
pause it, and then the teachers can model and use
my instruction to help them, so it serves a dull purpose.
So it's all there ready to go, though it's so easy.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, the videos are just the same as the writing
on the blackboard that we all had to copy in
our small books. But what are the nature's teaching at
the moment is that just anything goes so long as
it's something that's legible.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
They much, I think that's it, And a lot of
them haven't really realized, you know, they look at what
the output is, but they don't look at the input
and how the children are actually getting there. And a
lot of you know, I've been working with GA nine
and ten students and a lot of them have no
(07:05):
confidence in the way that they actually they're writing looks
on paper. Yeah, so, and you know that just affects
the whole mentality around the whole writing concept, you know,
so and a lot of them. But the mask you know,
the boys often boys will want to be on the
device because it looks the same, doesn't it. You know,
(07:27):
like if you type something, it looks the same as
the person next to you. You can't see that it
looks that you can't actually physically write with your hand.
A lot of the problems are caused because they haven't
been taught, rather than anything that it's actually wrong with them.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
So obviously you're fully supportive of the Advisory Group's recommendation.
But where are we going to get the teachers from.
I mean you, I think I said at the time,
you're a rare and beautiful unicorn going around teaching because
you know, given that we have had about twenty years
of teachers who haven't learned it. Apart from Megan Markle,
that's the only when I can think of it's had
(08:07):
an interest in calligraphy in the last twenty years.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Well, I think, I mean, ideally for me, it would
be something like the ministry supports an initiative like I've got,
and we roll it out, you know, we roll it
out across and we're don't have to spend huge taxpayer
money on it. You know, it's ready to go. The
Ministry rolls it out, we have consistency, we can ut
(08:32):
skill teachers at the same time, and it doesn't require
a huge investment of time because a lot of it
is self driven. But we've got to get the buy
in from the teachers as well, and hopefully that's working.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
I mean, surely it's just common sense. You can see
it for yourself. You only have to trial it for
a couple of weeks to see that. If you get
children writing, they remember it's all rare.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah, And that's the feedback we get all the time,
you know. And the cursor that we we add Kate
for is not excuse me, really spied or loose kind
of handwriting, and we want you know, it's it's like
a mixed script. So it's a combination of printing and cursive.
(09:21):
Joy in three. I think I'm looking at the original
one that we all were taught. Yeah, I was taught
in the eighties.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
I think that's what I've got, the quick brown fox
jumping over the lazy dog as a mixture of cursive
and you know the print Ye what about those loops?
Do say about my peers? The very big.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Anyway?
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Thank you so much, Belinda. Always good to talk Belinda
Blick Dagan, who is the managing director of the Write
Lessons about like handwriting obs write lesson dot co dot nzet.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
For more from Kerry Wooden Mornings, listen live to news
talks it'd be from nine am weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.
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